[at-l] slightly on topic - Re: Glad this guy is not a hiker - gun story

[gwa at antigravitygear.com (George (Tinman) Andrews)]

Once upon a time ( now that I'm an old codger I can say that), people took 
responsibility for animals.  If you had a wild dog or cat on your farm 
killing livestock, you shot it.  It was not considered a crime worthy of 
capitol punishment but rather a matter of common sense, responsibility, and 
survival.  One possible knee-jerk for this news story is to assume he was a 
drooling gun nut who liked to kill puppies for pleasure.  That may truly be 
the case.  If so, he and we are much better with him off the street.  Let me 
at 'em.

Regardless, he almost qualified for the Darwin award because of his 
gun-handling stupidity.

An alternate possibility is that he had an old-fashioned sense of 
responsibility and the intestinal fortitude to do the job himself for less 
than a dollar instead of farming the job out to the vet or the Humane 
Society for hundreds of dollars...using assets that could better be used 
elsewhere.  There is an appropriate time and place to take this 
responsibility into your own hands.  It just seems to be more acceptable and 
sanitary nowadays to take them to the Humane Society and then forget about 
it.  Also, some people just aren't "made-that-way" to be able to handle the 
putting down themselves.  Some communities make that option illegal because 
the results and safety can't be controlled.

The chicken$#&* way to handle the problem is to just go 10 or 20 miles down 
the road and dump them on someone else.  I have always considered that an 
unacceptable shirking of duty.  I have rescued many animals - mostly 
puppies - and adopted them into good homes.  The local radio swap-shop 
program ALWAYS works for me.  Sadie came to us in 1997 after one of our 
hurricanes and adopted us after a few charitable hotdogs were tossed her 
way.  She had a broken hip and collar hair matted showing where she had 
clearly been someone's pet.  We had her spayed and her hip operated on and 
she has been the best pet we have ever had.  Part German Shepard, part 
Aligator, part man-hole cover.

BTW, to keep this on topic, feral cats kill wildbirds by the score.  Ever 
notice the songbird population in the woods and on the trail ain't what it 
used to be?  When you catch a feral cat, please consider taking it to the 
pound for adoption or euthanasia.  Spaying and nutering and then releasing 
back into the wild to hunt is cruel in it's own way.  Cats left outside 
decimate the local bird and rabit population.  Just my $.02 worth.  Back to 
lurking with my dog Sadie.  She is a much better typist than I am.  Better 
spell checker too.  I also like cats.
George




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "ellen" <ellen@clinic.net>
To: <Bror8588@aol.com>; <jmmiele@optonline.net>; 
<at-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2004 12:18 PM
Subject: Re: OT - Re: [at-l] Glad this guy is not a hiker - gun story


> >"...What is the alternative of feeding the feral cats/kittens? Is this 
> >the same
> situation as feeding animals in the wild? If feral (domesticated type) 
> animals
> are not fed do they die or do they adapt to the wild and find sustenance 
> "out
> there," somewhere? If an undomesticated cat (say a Bob Cat or other type 
> of
> "wild" cat {as opposed to a "feral" domesticated animal) is found would we 
> be
> obligated to feed it?"
>
> My cat saga began when my son decided to live in a tent one summer while 
> their house was being constructed. A "friend" of my then daughter-in-law 
> asked her to take care of her cat while her apartment was being inspected 
> because no pets were allowed. She did so. The "friend" then disappeared. 
> The cat disappeared into the woods and had kittens. A finished house and a 
> divorce later, the campground owner called and complained about the wild 
> kittens my son had left behind.
>
> Being an accommodating guy I trapped the kittens, put them in my garage 
> and called the humane society. You already know the "rest of the story."
>
>
> Weary
>
>
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